The Journalism Club is hosting a Campus Trivia Night next week to promote National News Engagement Day. 

     The event is slated for 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 6 in the Campanile Room of The Union. Students, faculty and staff are invited to form teams of five people to compete for prizes. The registration deadline is 5 p.m. this Friday. To register, email [email protected]. There is a $20 (or $4 per person) registration fee.

     Journalism Club members have created different questions and categories relating to current news events. Several prizes from local businesses will go to the top three teams, and one lucky person will win an iPad Mini from a raffle drawing. Snacks and drinks will be provided.

     The goal of the event is to reinvigorate interest in the importance of news, said Teri Finneman, co-adviser of the Journalism Club.

     National statistics have found that involvement in the news appears to be on the decline. A recent news consumption survey conducted by the Pew Research Center called 29 percent of young adults “newsless.”

     “The news and overall credible information sharing are so critical, perhaps now more than ever when there is so much misinformation circulating on social media and the Internet in general,” Finneman said. “We want the campus community to understand the value of news in a fun event and to see why staying engaged with the news is important.”

     News Engagement Day was created in 2014 by Paula Poindexter, a former president of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication. The annual event is an attempt to get people, especially the younger generations, more involved in the news nationwide.

     The hope is to get people of all ages to explore the news and show the surrounding community that keeping up with the news is important—and can even be fun.

     “People don’t always want to take the time to read the news, so we decided to organize a fun activity to hopefully get people interested,” said Shelby Meier, a member of the club.

     In an age where news is accessible 24/7 through the Internet, television and various social media platforms, news has somehow lost its priority, event organizers say.

     “I really think that it’s a shame people are not keeping up with the news as much as they used to,” said Alex Stetter, secretary of the Journalism Club. “Reading the news keeps you updated on what’s going on in the world, things that are potentially directly affecting us.”

    This year, on Tuesday, everyone is encouraged to read, watch, like, tweet, post, text, email, listen to or comment on the news. If people wish to tweet about the national effort, the hashtag is #NewsEngagementDay.

     News Engagement Day also offers an opportunity to inform the public about the press and its principles, process and “watchdog” role as well as First Amendment rights, according to a news release.

     The SDSU Campus Trivia Night is sponsored by various businesses, including KELOLAND, the Brookings Register, the Argus Leader and the South Dakota Newspaper Association. 

    Selena Yakabe is an agriculture communications major and can be reached at [email protected]